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PALUS

PALUS a pole or stake, was used in the military exercises of
the Romans. It was stuck into the ground, and the tiro, armed with a heavy
wicker shield and a wooden sword, had to attack it as if it were a real
enemy. Vegetius (1.11) gives a full account of the drill. This kind of
exercise is sometimes called palaria (Sosip.
Charis. i. p. 11). It was used for exercise (e. g. before the bath) as well
as for military drill. So Martial (7.32, 8) speaks of “nudi stipitis ictus
hebes,” where the stipes = palus, and
the “
ictushebes
” expresses the wooden sword, which Juvenal
(6.247) renders by sudes, when he is speaking
of women taking to these manly exercises (vulnera
pall). See Becker-Göll, Gallus,
3.185 f.